Pedro Dredge in Chicken, AK, is open to the public.(Photo courtesy of Chicken Gold Camp and Outpost)
Mining dredges were used in Yukon andAlaska from the turn-of-the-century on into the 1950s to extract gold from the land. Several of these old dredges still litter the landscape of the North, one of the most visible reminders of the glory days of the Klondike Gold Rush.
The first gold dredge appeared in the Yukon in the fall of 1899. There were eventually some 2 dozen dredges working the Klondike area. The machines allowed miners to work large amounts of ground, extracting as much gold as possible from the dwindling supply in a relatively short amount of time. But the arrival of the dredges also signaled the end of an era. Big companies who could afford to mechanize gold mining by using dredges quickly replaced the colorful stampeders with their shovels and sluice boxes that characterized the early days of the Klondike Gold Rush. (more)
The North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was created in 1873 to establish law and order in the Canadian West. Alarmed by the lawlessness caused by whiskey traders in southern Alberta, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald sent the NWMP to Fort Whoop-up (near present-day Lethbridge) in 1874, where they immediately put a stop to the whiskey trade.
When a rich gold strike in the Fortymile River country near the Alaska-Yukon Territory border set off a small stampede of gold seekers, the North West Mounted Police were sent North. The Canadian government's concern was three-fold: to protect the Native population from indiscriminate liquor traders (such as those who had operated at trading posts in the south); to maintain some form of order to protect major commercial interests; and to make sure that the region remained Canadian. (more)
During their heyday, there were some 250 stern-wheelers on the Yukon River and other major rivers in the North. Defined as a paddle-wheel steamer having a stern wheel instead of side wheels, these massive wooden vessels plied Northern rivers for almost 100 years, hauling supplies, equipment, ore and passengers.
Stern-wheelers were first introduced to the Yukon River in 1866. Paddle wheels churning, boilers chugging, they moved up and down the river, from after breakup until just before the river froze for the winter. (more)
The Klondike Gold Rush was the largest gold rush of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although it followed numerous earlier gold rushes to Alaska and British Columbia, it was George Carmack's 1896 discovery of gold on Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Yukon Territory, which launched the most publicized era in the annals of gold fever.
Carmack had been prospecting in the area for 10 years without success when he unearthed a 5-dollar pan of coarse gold on Rabbit Creek. That winter, he extracted more than a ton of gold from the creek, which he renamed Bonanza Creek. It was the richest gold strike ever in North America. (more)
Blazing a Trail North:
The Alcan
Alaska Highway construction workers at Mile 1 out of Fort Nelson, 1942.
For a road built more than 60 years ago, the story of the Alaska Highway's construction remains surprisingly well known, perhaps because more than any other road in North America its construction is so well documented. Or perhaps because the story of building a road through the remote wilderness of North America, in extreme weather conditions under an impossible deadline, is so compelling.
The most memorable images of the construction days come from those men who worked on the road. In Earl Brown's "Alcan Trail Blazers," the author has assembled a collection of quotes, most from letters and diaries, from some of those Alaska Highway construction workers. Their letters and diaries vividly recall the drudgery and excitement of day to day life on the trail. All of the following quotes are courtesy of Earl Brown, from his book, "Alcan Trail Blazers, Alaska Highway's Forgotten Heros." Earl grew up on the Alaska Highway and is a resident of Fort Nelson, BC. He has also been field editor for The MILEPOST since 1985. (more)
